


A Slice of That World

by Just_Another_Day



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Aftercare, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Background Het, Boot Worship, F/M, Identity Issues, Light BDSM, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pegging, Praise Kink, Public Sex, Service Kink, Sexual Content, Spitroasting, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 17:10:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18695788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_Another_Day/pseuds/Just_Another_Day
Summary: These places seemed to be designed specifically to prey on someone who had Damen's particular preferences paired with Damen's lack of self-preservation skills. Obviouslysomeonehad to keep an eye on Damen and make sure he didn't let himself be taken in by the smiles and false promises of those who wouldn't care if they hurt him, as long as they got what they wanted out of it.





	A Slice of That World

**Author's Note:**

> Quite a few Kink Bingo squares hit in this one, though some of them are more minor parts of the fic than others. We've got: Dom/Sub (again), Service Kink, Boot Worship, Voyeurism, Anonymity, Public Sex, Double Penetration, Pegging, Sex Toys, and Come Marking (the last one is for my Free Space).

'The Veretian'. It was a simple name displayed on a plain sign, set against a brick wall over a non-descript looking door. From the outside, everything about the place seemed exceedingly discreet. Just another business. Nothing to see here.

Of course, it was a very different matter inside.

Nikandros had often had to tail Damen to clubs like this when they'd been younger. As distasteful as he found them, Nikandros could hardly have let Damen go off alone when these places seemed to be designed specifically to prey on someone who had Damen's particular preferences paired with Damen's lack of self-preservation skills. Obviously _someone_ had to keep an eye on Damen and make sure he didn't let himself be taken in by the smiles and false promises of those who wouldn't care if they hurt him, as long as they got what they wanted out of it. And if being that person for him had meant that Nikandros needed to endure watching Damen fuck around with any number of people who didn't even come close to being right for him, and sitting through seemingly endless hours of far-too-public spectacle all throughout the clubs, and even once having a restraining order issued against him when one of Damen's less savoury 'suitors' hadn't been smart enough to take Nikandros's warnings at face value, it was still a fair trade. Because Nikandros didn't even want to consider the alternative.

Nikandros hadn't needed to go anywhere near any of the scene clubs for years, though. Not since Damen had met Jokaste and decided that he no longer needed to look to strangers to satisfy… whatever rush it was that Damen apparently got from the experience of submission. That had been worse in a way. Nikandros would honestly have preferred to go back to all the downsides of the clubs that have Jokaste around. At least before her Damen had never been serious enough about anyone he picked up to just ignore all of Nikandros's warnings. And at least then, Nikandros hadn't had to worry about losing Damen permanently.

Oddly, once Jokaste had eventually proven herself every inch the viper Nikandros had always suspected her to be, there had been no indication that Damen was interested in returning to the club scene. Nikandros had assumed that Jokaste had been bad enough to turn him off either sex or submission for a while. But just last week Damen had accidentally let it slip that he'd recently returned to visiting the clubs on a regular basis, but without taking Nikandros along with him.

Nikandros wasn't going to knowingly stand for that state of affairs. And Damen had actually seemed strangely glad to have Nikandros accompany him to the clubs again. So here they were.

Nikandros had hoped that some aspects of his exposure from years ago might have settled deep into his brain to somewhat numb him to the experience now. But no. Apparently the more exaggerated parts of this world weren't something that a man like Nikandros could ever just get accustomed to. He still had no idea how to deal with Damen acting completely different than he did out in the 'real' world, let alone when Damen did something like kneeling beside the chair Nikandros had snatched up rather than just claiming the second empty chair beside him. Nikandros also didn't know where to look. There were things he would prefer not to see in just about every direction. Mainly he opted to focus on Damen, letting his eyes play over the pattern of thick curls at the crown of Damen's head and noting how the low light still managed to highlight the crafted plains of Damen's body. But sometimes Damen would catch him looking, and Nikandros would have to quickly find somewhere else to cast his gaze for a time. And those were the times was when Nikandros invariably found his eyes drawn to the commotion of the scene playing out on the stage.

Tonight the main 'performance' on the raised platform at the front of the room had started with a young man being caned for the excitement of the masses. By this point, the cane had been cast aside, and the man was now kneeling on the floor in front of a more mature-looking dominatrix. The man was clearly trying to be careful not to let his movements exacerbate the flaming red stripes the cane had littered across his ass and lower back. He was probably well-distracted from the pain of that, though, since he was busy practically devouring the strap-on dildo that was held in place by a complex lattice of leather looped around the Domme's otherwise naked hips and thighs. The Domme must have eventually decided that he'd worshipped it with his mouth for a satisfactory amount of time, because Nikandros watched her take a step back. Apparently that was a silent but recognisable signal, for her sub immediately fell the rest of the way into a crawling position and turned himself around. He raised his reddened ass high in the air for her. 

Nikandros looked away, as if that alone would somehow lend them some privacy in what should have been an intimate moment. Though he supposed that it wasn't as if either of them seemed to be concerned about that, or they wouldn't have been making a public display of it in the first place. Even though he didn't actually watch it happen, Nikandros still knew the exact moment that the Domme pressed the dildo into the sub's hole, for there was a shift in the energy of the room. The approval emanating from everyone who _did_ watch was palpable. And the sub's gasp was audible. Nikandros wondered if it really felt _that_ good for him, or if he was just exaggerating to make for a better performance. Nikandros wouldn't know from personal experience. Damen would, but that was probably more information than Nikandros wanted about Damen's sex life to date.

Nikandros decided that it was probably safe to look back at Damen by now, and was surprised to find that Damen wasn't among those staring raptly at the performance as the Domme started setting a rhythmic pace. Instead, Damen's attention was so entirely diverted elsewhere that it was as if he didn't even notice that there was a performance currently going on at all. 

It only took Nikandros a second to realise what was so captivating. Something in the vicinity of Nikandros's gut felt like it dipped a little. If there was a single person in this room – or perhaps even this entire city – who could be considered a match for Damen's usual preferences, it was the man who Damen was openly staring at, and who seemed to be surveying Nikandros in turn. It wasn't just the blond hair or the pale expanses of skin. Or even that he was clearly a Dom; Nikandros had spent enough time around people who lived that lifestyle to varying degrees to know one when he saw him. But there was also something in the man's bearing that suggested he would be hard to please, and Damen unfortunately loved a challenge. 

The man looked away from Nikandros to glance down to where Damen was curled at Nikandros's feet, not looking at all surprised to find Damen looking back. Of course not. Looking like that, Nikandros would just _bet_ the guy was arrogant enough to believe that every pair of eyes in the room were on him rather than on the stage. The way his eyes lingered on Damen made Nikandros tense up. 

"You're neglecting your poor sub," said the man after he apparently took Damen's attention as an invitation to slid up uninvited into Nikandros's personal space, so that Damen was now more or less at his feet. Nikandros was propelled to his own feet without even thinking about it, which only brought him closer to the intruder. But even the unnatural proximity wasn't quite as grating as the taunting tone to the man's voice. "You should let me take him off your hands, since obviously you don't know how to handle him."

"He's not my sub," said Nikandros. The words came out through gritted teeth.

"Then you won't mind if I steal him away for the night."

Nikandros certainly _would_ mind. Nikandros might understand that Damen enjoyed certain aspects of this scene, even if Nikandros couldn't really figure out _why_ he did. But Nikandros wouldn't accept that enjoying submission made Damen akin to some kind of _slave_ with no direct say over what happened to him. Damen was too strong-willed for that.

And yet Damen strangely didn't voice any objection to being treated that way by this man.

So Nikandros supposed that he would just have to do it for him this time.

"He's not a piece of unclaimed property for you to just stroll up and pronounce ownership over him," Nikandros said. 

"Is that what you think dominance is? Then no wonder you've left him languishing, just sitting at your feet with nothing to do. Can't you see he's itching to be put to use?" The man's eyes slid from Nikandros down to Damen again. "What do you say, sweetheart? Shall I find something to occupy those idle hands of yours?"

Nikandros grimaced at both the unearned endearment and at what seemed to be a crude entendre. Though when Damen nodded wordlessly, the man didn't actually undo his trousers and prompt Damen to reach for him as Nikandros had expected. Instead, he extended what looked almost like a scarf for Damen to take from his hand. 

"My boots require a polish," the man said. 

It wasn't even a proper request. More of a statement of fact, really. Yet Damen seemed to treat it like it was an order. To Nikandros's consternation, Damen eagerly bent down and got to work. Damen's forearms flexed, showcasing how much effort he was putting into the task. Into pleasing this overly demanding stranger. It irritated Nikandros to no end.

"I believe they call it a spit shine for a reason," the man said suggestively when it seemed to Nikandros that Damen had already buffed both boots to perfection. Now that was just unnecessarily drawing it out, Nikandros thought.

Nikandros himself was tempted to spit at the man's feet, if for a very different reason. Nikandros didn't think for a moment that Damen would refuse, though. That was exactly the problem; Damen was practically incapable of not answering a dare. Still, Nikandros couldn't say that he expected it when Damen took the man's words as an invitation to lean even further down, practically prostrate on the floor, and run his tongue up the leather. Nikandros grimaced, but there was no sign that Damen himself found it unpleasant, despite everything. In fact, Nikandros couldn't help but notice the oddly contented, if distant, expression on Damen's face as he pressed kisses over the leather as tenderly as he surely would have treated actual skin. 

"Aren't you perfect," the man said, and Damen experienced a visible full-body shiver in response to the praise.

That small exchange shouldn't have affected Nikandros so viscerally. The sight of Damen's pleasure shouldn't have made his cock twitch, and his breath accelerate slightly. But 'shouldn't' was very different to 'didn't'.

Apparently the change in Nikandros was obvious, for the corners of the man's mouth upturned smugly, and he made a point of saying to Nikandros, "You see? It's so much more enjoyable for everyone involved if you let him actually do things for you. Why don't you give it a try?"

"I don't need you to tell me what to do," Nikandros said. 

"Hmm. Don't you?" His voice softened as he directed it at Damen. "You can stop now, sweetheart. You've done such a good job. Thank you." He reached down to card his fingers softly through Damen's curls, like a reward. Damen tilted his head into the man's touch, his eyelids fluttering shut. 

The way the man said 'thank you' to Damen somehow didn't sound at all different to the way Nikandros might have said 'I love you' to… well, to Damen. Nikandros had no idea what to make of that. He honestly had never understood how any of this dominance and submission madness that Damen seemed to enjoy really worked. It had always seemed too close, too fast, and Nikandros didn't like seeing Damen so easily trust himself to anyone without them properly earning it. But this was the closest Nikandros had ever come to understanding it. Probably because he was fairly certain this was the first time he'd seen it done right.

"You really have no idea, do you?" the man said as he watched Nikandros. He rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like, "I don't know what he sees in you."

"What?" Nikandros asked.

"Let's make this simple, shall we? Sweetheart, your friend's trousers look uncomfortably tight. Why don't you help him with that."

"What?" Nikandros practically yelped. "Why would you… He doesn't have to…"

It took Nikandros a long moment and the distinct feeling of Damen's fingers on his zipper to realise that he hadn't actually said 'no'. And even that realisation didn't prompt the word out of him, somehow.

"Of course he doesn't _have_ to," the man scoffed. "But as I said, he enjoys doing things. It's how he likes to demonstrate how he feels. If you want it, then he wants it."

Did Damen really? It was hard to believe that Damen wouldn't have asked for it long before now if he had the slightest interest (and yes, Nikandros was well aware of the hypocrisy of that, but it had somehow always seemed like Damen's decision to make, not his). 

Either way, Nikandros didn't like that this man was speaking up for Damen like that. Nikandros had thought that if anyone was going to be doing that tonight, it would be him, and if so that it would only be to stop Damen from making a huge mistake rather than encouraging him into it.

But it didn't feel like a mistake. Not when Damen didn't seem to be at all against it, to say the least. His lips were already pressing light kisses up the length of Nikandros's cock.

"Taking liberties, are you?" the man asked Damen. "I don't recall suggesting that you should take it that far. Stop."

Damen's lips obediently fell away from Nikandros's skin. A frustrated sound wrenched itself from Nikandros's throat.

That seemed to amuse the man. "If you want him to suck you, you'll have to ask for it. That's how it works with a service sub like him."

Nikandros dearly wanted to say it. But he also didn't want to risk ruining his friendship with Damen just because they'd both gotten caught up in this random stranger's games. So Nikandros held out against saying anything for quite some time, forcing himself not to react to the sensation of Damen's breath puffing against the wet head of his cock and the knowledge that he could have far more than that if he just said the word. 

Eventually, though, Nikandros's resolve did break down. "Damen," he said.

That was all the instruction Damen required. Nikandros reflexively cupped his hand around the back of Damen's head, guiding, as the tip of his cock slid into Damen's mouth.

Nikandros was only vaguely aware of the other man kneeling behind Damen and pushing Damen's jeans down his thighs. He didn't miss the fact that the man removed something large from Damen's ass before sinking his own fingers inside in its place. How had Damen not been squirming in place the whole time he'd been sitting at Nikandros's feet before the man had approached if he'd had _that_ shifting against his prostate? Was Nikandros that unobservant, or did Damen just have far more self-control when it came to that sort of thing than Nikandros would have credited him with?

Nikandros must have gotten slightly too lost in his vivid imaginations of what it would have looked like had Damen been rocking in place, trying to fuck himself on that butt plug right there at Nikandros's feet, for he somehow missed the man unzipping his own trousers. Nikandros could hardly miss him thrusting in, though; the force of it pushed Damen further onto Nikandros's cock. 

Nikandros nearly protested on Damen's behalf, since Damen's mouth was too occupied to do it himself even if he'd been inclined. After all, Damen hadn't actually given the man permission to fuck him. But Damen sucked particularly enthusiastically on the next thrust, and it really couldn't have been more obvious to Nikandros that he welcomed it.

Nikandros might have also been slightly swayed into silence by his desire not to stop this. It felt too good.

"Fuck his mouth," the man instructed. "I bet he'll like that."

Nikandros wanted to tell him to fuck off. To remind him that Nikandros didn't take his orders, and that he didn't get to decide what Damen would like, even though he'd been surprisingly on the money about everything up until now. But Nikandros had been barely stopping himself from moving to match the rhythm the man was setting, and the permission – even if it wasn't from the right person – was the last straw. Nikandros rocked forward, enjoying the tight clasp of Damen's throat as he gagged slightly as he tried to accommodate Nikandros's length.

Nikandros was distantly aware of cheering breaking out among the crowd. Apparently the show on the stage had finally ended. He wondered if people would start noticing the three of them fucking right out in the open – becoming the exact kind of spectacle that Nikandros had always hated about these places – now that their attention wasn't being effectively held elsewhere.

Nikandros almost couldn't bring himself to care just then. Nothing short of Damen actually saying the word 'stop' could probably have deterred him at that point.

Nikandros did try to hold onto his quickly-fractured control for as long as he could. The knowledge was lurking somewhere in the back of Nikandros's head that this might not be something he was ever likely to experience again, so he'd better make it last. He couldn't manage to stave himself off for long, though. Damen was either more practised at this act than Nikandros would have anticipated, given how Damen had more often opted for women (although as the display the dominatrix had engineered on the stage had made clear, Nikandros supposed that one didn't necessarily preclude the other), or Nikandros was just far too affected by Damen in particular. Possibly both.

When Nikandros came, Damen managed to swallow most of it, but some did spill past his lips, streaming over his chin. For a wild moment, Nikandros wished he'd instead pulled out and splashed his whole load over Damen's face, marking him so that the man would see who he _really_ belonged to; if it was going to be anyone, it should be Nikandros. But that thought thankfully only lasted long enough for Nikandros's brain to start working properly again. He stumbled backwards slightly on shaky legs, managing to pull his trousers up and find the seat he'd been sitting in earlier so that he could collapse into it rather than straight onto the ground. 

From there, he had the perfect view of Damen continuing to get fucked. Damen was panting heavily now, sweat beading on his forehead, as the man thrust into him almost brutally (or at least that was how it seemed to Nikandros). Damen was clearly enjoying it, though, which was best evidenced by him coming half a minute before the man fucking into him, and needing only the quickest of touches to his cock before his climax hit him.

Within a minute, Damen was half-slumped on the ground, clearly exhausted.

"Laurent…" Damen murmured, his voice a little croaky (from sucking Nikandros's cock, Nikandros recalled with a sense of surreality). It was the first thing Damen had said for the better part of the night, Nikandros recognised.

"Shh," the man said gently. "You're alright. Go to Nikandros."

Damen crawled to him, and Nikandros shortly found himself with a lapful of Damen and a racing mind.

The man knew Nikandros's name, even though Nikandros was certain he hadn't mentioned it and though Damen hadn't spoken at all up until that point. And also… "Laurent?" Nikandros questioned suspiciously.

"Yes," the man – Laurent – said.

"You two already knew each other before tonight."

"Obviously," Laurent said, as if it really were obvious. As if he hadn't clearly made a point of keeping it a secret, never calling Damen by name or otherwise making it obvious that he was acquainted with Damen in any way. "Certainly I know him well enough to be aware that he needs more than you just sitting there like a useless lump. Touch him. Hold him. Don't tell me you've never even heard of aftercare. What kind of Dom are you?"

He wasn't one at all. Or so Nikandros had thought, before he'd had that reaction to Damen reacting so well to being praised. Maybe there were some small slivers of this whole dominance and submission thing that he could come to like, as long as it was with Damen.

As much as he really did despise doing what Laurent told him to, Nikandros tried it out anyway, for Damen's benefit. It was odd. Not in a bad way, but in a way that Nikandros would have to get used to if somehow something more did manage to come of this in future. He had held Damen too many times to count, but never like this; never with Damen half-naked, and with the underlying meaning of the embrace a very long way from what a hug had meant when they were young boys. Nikandros knew he was being ridiculously awkward as he stiltedly pulled Damen close into his chest and tried to rub his back in a way that was soothing. Damen seemed to at least appreciate the effort, leaning into every tiny touch like he couldn't live without them. Just as Laurent had suggested he would. Laurent clearly _did_ know Damen well enough to know what he liked, and what he needed.

"You're a couple," Nikandros guessed. Had Damen even been visiting The Veretian before now? Or had that just been a story they'd come up with to make sure Nikandros would feel compelled to invite himself along.

"If you want to call it that," Laurent confirmed in an oddly non-specific way. It felt like that could have meant anything from 'we've actually just had casual sex on very rare occasions' through to 'we've been married for years'. Nikandros would have liked to believe that he'd have known if it fell closer on the spectrum to the latter than the former, but honestly, he hadn't known that Damen was specifically interested in anyone at all. Maybe he hadn't _wanted_ to know.

"Why didn't you just tell me that from the outset?" Nikandros asked. "It would have made this all so much easier."

"Would it?" Laurent asked. "If you'd known that we're at the point where he's moving in with me when his lease is up next month, you'd have been comfortable inserting yourself into that? Even knowing that Damen wants it as well?"

That wasn't a simple question. And now Nikandros had no idea how to deal with the sudden knowledge that Damen had found someone he actually wanted to settle down with - even Jokaste had never got to that stage - on its own, let alone paired with the fact that Damen had sucked Nikandros off while his apparently committed boyfriend watched on encouragingly and more or less in approval. It was... confusing, to say the least.

"Anyway, why should I have told you? It's not as though you asked."

Well Nikandros hadn't known to ask, had he. Because Damen and Laurent had made sure he wouldn't.

"Oh don't look at me like that," said Laurent, obviously reading something of Nikandros's irritation. "You could have said stop at any point. And there's no point in pretending you're actually angry when you're still touching him like that."

Nikandros became aware for the first time that he was still circling his hands tenderly over Damen's back while Damen slumped, seemingly half-asleep and probably barely aware of the conversation, against Nikandros's shoulder. Nikandros's legs were going a little numb from Damen's weight in his lap. Nikandros didn't ask him to move, though, or stop what he was doing.

"Oh, I'm definitely angry. But it's not like a temporarily concealed relationship, even for this purpose, comes close to being the worst or the stupidest thing he's put me through," Nikandros acknowledged. Which really should have sounded more like a condemnation than the verbal equivalent of an affectionate eye roll. "It's definitely not going to stop me from caring for him like this when he needs it, if that's what you were hoping for.

"If that's what I was hoping for?" Laurent repeated. "You think that if my aim had been to get you away from him I would have done it by going out of my way to arrange for you to have sex with him?"

"I don't know what you'd do, since I don't know you at all," Nikandros pointed out.

Laurent said, "I wouldn't worry about that. I'm sure we'll be getting to know each other _very_ well soon enough. Presuming you really aren't going anywhere, that is. Because neither am I. And I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make Damen happy."

The implication was clear enough; Laurent seemed to be under the impression that not only might there be some kind of repeat performance of a scenario like earlier, where they'd all been involved at once, but that Laurent and Nikandros themselves might more directly interact in future. Nikandros wasn't entirely sure how much he wanted that. He might not know Laurent (yet), but it didn't take long to recognise how _annoying_ he was. Not at all Nikandros's usual type. 

Damen, however, was a different matter. And Nikandros wasn't sure he could say no to being with Damen again now that he'd had a taste. If that meant Laurent being involved as well, Nikandros supposed that he would just have to deal with that problem when it came.

As Laurent had said: whatever it took to ensure Damen's happiness. And if Nikandros could be happy with Damen in that way as well, that was more than Nikandros had ever hoped for.


End file.
